Reality-Competition Program

Emmys 101: How winners are determined

The 21,000 plus members of the TV academy can cast ballots across all program categories (save for animated documentary/nonfiction which are restricted to their peer groups.) And they get to vote for the winners in their respective branches as well.

In a big shift from previous years, voters now pick just one nominee as their preferred winner in each category, rather than ranking them as they had done in the past. This change to a plurality systems means that the winner will be the contender with the most votes. Under the old preferential ballot, the winner was the nominee that survived a series of rounds of counting and elimination.

This year’s nominations, which were announced on July 13, were also arrived at by a new system. Voters were allowed to select up to 10 contenders per category. Unlike the Oscars, Emmy voters did not rank their choices and nominees were determined by a simple tally. While there are seven nominees in each of Comedy Series and Drama Series, there are five or six in the rest of the races.